The American Spectator

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Henry Gooch br> Gulf Shores, Alabama /p> p> I've never heard anyone say "John Kerry is one sharp politician" or even "John Kerry has one sharp mind" or John Kerry anything except comments about the wealth of his wife. When you really think about it he is a non-player outside of his home state. br> -- Richard Ledford /p>

Brandon Crocker asserts Howard Dean has finally driven John Kerry insane. If so, it looks to have been a short drive. Those who lament the length of the quadrennial presidential wrist wrestling contest between wannabes in the run up to the first set of primaries ought to re-think their complaint. One of the great advantages of this extended gauntlet -- through millions of other peoples' dollars, hundreds of thousands of trudged miles and often through the very limits of exhaustion -- is the chance for voters to see how the wannabes control themselves in high stress situations.

Of course, the process ain't perfect. We did, after all, give JFK a squeaker victory over his pressure-tested opponent. There must be something about these New England politicians lusting for high office that seems to make them crumple under pressure -- John F. Kennedy flinching at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, Teddy making those endless telephone calls from his motel room to cover his sorry butt while one of his boiler room bunnies breathed the last of the air trapped in the back seat of his submerged automobile at Chappaquiddick in 1969, Ed Muskie crying in the snow in 1972, John Kerry imploding in an interview with Rolling Stone.

p>And now we're being asked to believe that Howard Dean is New England politician cut from different bolt of material. Tough sell, even if the inventor of the Internet -- the guy who needed a female consultant to teach him how to be an alfa male and the guy who booted away what should have been a peace/prosperity/budget surplus shoo-in of an election -- has endorsed him. It may be an especially tough sell because Al Gore had to stick the knife of betrayal into the back of his ultra-loyal 2000 running mate in order to endorse Dean. br> -- Thomas E. Stuart br> Kapa'au, Hawaii

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